The Ultimate Hong Kong Blog
Record price paid for a Hong Kong Car Licence | Vanity Plate on March 7th 2021
Personalized Vehicle Registration Marks
Traditional Vehicle Registration Marks
Hong Kong had it’s first Vehicle Licence Plate Auction on March 7th 2021 for 14 months, the powers that be decided no auctions could take place because of Covid 19 after the end of January 2020.
As you can see from the image below there was not many plates up for Auction but this was a special Chinese Lunar New Year Auction ( it should have taken place in early February! ) generally the Government holds the great plates back banking on the feeding frenzy mentality of these Auctions at Chinese New Year.
In essence the auction went to plan and followed the template of most Chinese New Year auctions with one exception
The Licence Plate | Vanity Plate single letter W sold for HK$26,000,000 or US$3,333,334
The previous record was for Licence Plate 28 sold for H$18,100,000 or US$2,320,510 5 years ago in February 2016
Only 2 single letter licence plates exist V and W and I rather suspect that this is a trend, my prediction is the letter C will break all records if it ever comes up for auction.
…. and just so we are clear the money for the licence plate goes to Charity. so there is a feel good factor involved!
…… and while we are discussing facts and figures, since 1973 | 3,786 licence plates have sold for HK$100,000 or more (US$12,820) and that includes 103 licence plates that have sold for over HK$1,000,000 or US$128,205 - it is big business and very much a part of Hong Kong Culture.
The ULTIMATE list of ALL Hong Kong Car Licence | Vanity Plates
that sold for over HK$1,000,000 (US$128,025) at auction since 1973
All information regarding auction prices of licence plates | vanity plates are from the Transport Department of the Hong Kong Government who hold monthly auctions. Please assume that this comprehensive information is 100% accurate
Traditional Licence Plates have been sold by auction in Hong Kong with lucky number and letter combinations since 1973 Personalised Licence Plates or Vanity Plates have been sold by auction in Hong Kong since 2006 | I have been able to obtain 30 years of Auction data (over 2,600 pages | 140,000+ entries) | covering the time period 1990 - 2021 - apparently there is no computerised data available to the public prior to 1990, it is understood that the Licence Plate No. 8 is the holy grail in Hong Kong... it sold in 1988 for a comparatively low price of HK$5,000,000 or US$641,025
Prepared by Jamie Lloyd | j3tourshongkong.com
100% ACCURATE and UPDATED on March 7th 2021
New Hong Kong record March 7th 2021
Licence Plate W (single letter)
sold for HK$26,000,000 or US$3,333,334
I am at the stage where I cannot help but translate the numbers on Car Licence Plates in Hong Kong and take a picture of the car to add to my extensive collection of car images, we all have to have a hobby, right?
I always find it difficult to come up with a standardised term for licence plates that people recognise around the World…. up until recently I was saying Car Number Plate
Hong Kong Personalized Vehicle Registration Marks
Hong Kong Traditional Vehicle Registration Marks
Hong Kong Car Number Plates
Hong Kong Car Licence Plates
Hong Kong Car License Plates
Hong Kong Vehicle License Plates
Hong Kong Vehicle Number Plates
Hong Kong Vehicle Licence Plates
Hong Kong Car Vanity Plates
Hong Kong Vanity License Plates
Hong Kong Personised Car Number Plates
Hong Kong Personalized Car Licence Plates
Hong Kong Personalised Number Plates
Hong Kong Personalized Vanity Plates
Different words and different spellings, it can get awfully confusing. The first two, Personalized Vehicle Registration Marks and Traditional Vehicle Registration Marks are the ones used by the Hong Kong Government and are basically the correct ones given that they have to licence or license (!) any and all sorts of vehicles, not just cars… my preference NOW will always be Car Licence Plates
See below for the list of the currently 103 car licence plates that have sold for HK$1,000,000 or US$128,025